How Deep Is God's Love

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are John 3:11-21.

Our reading for tonight contains one of the most popular Bible verses.  John Three, Sixteen.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

            Every time there’s a survey of favorite Bible verses, this one is at or near the top.  When I asked the confirmation classes to choose a favorite Bible verse, a few of them chose this one.  It’s one that almost everyone knows, and almost everyone loves.

            And it’s easy to see why.  We like hearing that God loves us.  We like hearing that God loves us so much that He would sacrifice the earthly life of the divine Son, Jesus Christ, for us.  We like hearing that if we believe in Jesus, we will have eternal life.

            And if we read a little farther, we really like the next verse, too.  “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”  We like hearing that Jesus did not come to condemn us.  We like hearing that Jesus came to save us.

            But too often, we stop there.  And that’s too bad.  I mean, all those things we’ve just said are awesome.  They’re great to hear, they’re great to know.  They’re all true.  But if we stop there, we cheat ourselves.  We don’t realize the true depth of the love God has for us.  And we don’t understand how awesome the salvation and eternal life we can get by that love really is.

            So let’s look at it.  Jesus said:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

“Whoever does not believe stands condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”  Think about what that really says.  Without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, you and I and everyone would all be condemned.  None of us would be saved.  Not one.  Not the best, the most giving, the most caring person you can think of.  Not Mother Teresa.  Not Billy Graham.  Not Martin Luther King, Jr.  Not one of us would be saved if God did not love the world so much, that God gave his one and only Son.  If Jesus Christ had not died for our sins, each and every one of us would be condemned.

In fact, it’s not that each one of us would be condemned.  It’s that each of us is already condemned.  That’s what it says:  whoever does not believe stands condemned already.  But the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and our belief in Him as the Savior, takes away that condemnation.  We are people given a death sentence.  We’re just waiting for it to be carried out.  

And the thing is, it’s a death sentence we deserve.  Because none of us is good enough to get into heaven.  Maybe you say, well, but I know some really good people.  And you probably do.  Maybe you’re even one of them.  But to be good enough to get into heaven, we’d have to be as good as God.  And we cannot be as good as God, because God is perfect.  That’s what Jesus meant in Mark Ten, Eighteen when he said no one is good but God.  God is perfectly good.  You and I, no matter how hard we try and no matter how many good things we do, cannot be perfectly good.  And so none of us is good enough to go to heaven.  Again, we are condemned people, just waiting for that death sentence to be carried out.

And then, at the last minute, we’re given a pardon by God.  That pardon is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  Think of the love God has for us to do that.  To allow the divine Son to die, in a cruel and painful way, just to save each of us.  Each of us sinners.  Each of us undeserving people.

I mean, really think about that.  God did that just to allow each of us to get into heaven and have eternal life.  Why?  Why does God even want us in heaven?  Why does God want us fallen, bumbling, sinful, ungrateful people messing up heaven?  Why does God want us around at all?  We don’t belong there.  We don’t deserve to be there.  And yet, God wants us there.  God invites us in.  God is eager for us to come.  God is so eager for us to come that God sent His divine Son to die, to take the punishment we should get for our sins, so that you and I can go to heaven and have eternal life.  Why?

It’s love.  That’s the only answer there can be.  When we say, “God so loved the world”, what we’re really saying is God so loved you.  God loved you, and me, so much that he gave his one and only Son, that if we believe in Him we will not be condemned, even though we deserve to be.  Instead, we will have eternal life.  That’s amazing.  That’s an amazing love.  That’s how much God loves you.  And it’s how much God loves me.

In explaining this, Jesus said that we should look to him for salvation in the same way that looked at a snake that Moses lifted up in the wilderness.  That’s a story the people listening to Jesus would’ve known.  Maybe some of you know it, too, but maybe some of you don’t.  It’s a story from the book of Numbers, Chapter Twenty-one.  This is while the people of Israel are still out in the wilderness, before they get to the promised land.  The people of Israel are plagued by poisonous snakes.  A lot of them are dying.  Moses prays to God, and God answers.  

And in answering, God gives the people of Israel a way out.  God says, you know, the way the people of Israel have complained about me, the way they’ve rebelled against me, they really do deserve to die.  But, because the people of Israel are my chosen people, I will give them a chance to be saved.  So here’s what you do.  Make a bronze snake.  Put it on a pole.  When someone’s bitten by a snake, they should look at this bronze snake.  If they trust Me enough to do that, they’ll live.  If they don’t, if they won’t put their faith in Me, then they’ll die.

Each one of us is dying, too.  Not right away, I hope, not the result of having been bitten by a poisonous snake.  But still, we know we’re all going to die at some point.  It’s just the way it is.

But God gives us a way out.  God says, I know that by the way you live, by the sins you commit, you really do deserve to die.  But because I love you, I will give you a chance to be saved.  So here’s what you do.  Look to Jesus.  Repent of your sins.  Ask for forgiveness.  Truly try to change.  And look to Jesus.  Have faith in Jesus.  Believe he is the Savior, the divine Son of God.  If you trust Me enough to do that, you’ll live.  If you don’t, if you won’t put your faith in Jesus, then you’ll die.  And you’ll die for eternity.

This is how much God loves us.  God loves us so much that God does not give us the death we deserve.  Instead, God gives us a way out.  God gives us the chance for salvation and eternal life, a chance that we do not deserve.  But God gives it to us anyway, because God loves us that much.

But, God does not force us to accept the way out that God offers.  God still gives us a choice.  The way out is there, if we’ll only take it.  But we have to make the decision to take it.  It’s our choice.

Do you suppose, back in Moses’ time, that there were people who were bitten by a poisonous snake, but refused to look at the bronze snake?  I suspect there were.  There were some people who probably thought that was stupid.  What, just looking at a bronze snake is going to make me all well again?  Yeah, right.  And so they died, because they did not trust God.  They did not have enough faith to take the way out God offered them.  

And there are people today who do the same thing.  There are people who think faith in God is stupid.  What, I believe in Jesus as the Savior, and that’s going to give me eternal life?  Even though I die here, I’m going to go to heaven and live with God forever?  Yeah, right.  And so they die.  They do not receive eternal life, because they do not have enough faith to take the way out God offers.  God allows them to make that choice.

Some people wonder why a loving God would allow people to make that choice.  If God loves us, why does God allow people to choose death over life?  But to me that shows just how much God really does love us.  Because true love does not force people to do things.

God does all kinds of things to try to persuade us to choose life.  God gave us His Holy Word, the Bible.  God gave us the divine Son, Jesus Christ.  God has given us prophets.  God’s Holy Spirit works in all kinds of ways, large and small.  God does any number of things to try to get us to turn to Him, to accept Jesus as the Savior, and choose eternal life.  

But God does not force us.  Love does not force people.  Love allows choices.  But of course, choices come with consequences.  God gives us the chance to choose eternal life.  But God allows us to not choose eternal life, and God allows us to accept the consequences of that choice.

John Three, Sixteen is a great verse.  But it’s more than just a nice, sweet verse that makes us feel good.  It’s a verse about the awesome love of God.  A love so strong that it gives us sinful, ungrateful, undeserving people a way to go to heaven and have eternal life.  Let’s make the right choice.  Let’s accept that way.  Let’s believe in the divine Son of God.  Let’s accept Him as the Savior.  And let’s be in awe of the incredible love of God that allows us to make that choice.

 

The Rules

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, January 31, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Mark 2:23--3:6.

One of the most important Bible passages to most of us is the Ten Commandments.  We study them in Sunday school.  We study them in confirmation class.  There are Bible studies based on them.  I suspect some of you had to memorize them at some point.  Maybe you still can recite them.  My Mom can.

            The Ten Commandments were even more important to the Jewish people of Jesus’ time.  Those people did not just study them.  They did not just memorize them.  They were expected to live them.  And they were expected to live them to the letter.  The Ten Commandments were supposed to govern every aspect of your everyday life.

            One of those Ten Commandments, of course, is this one:        

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.

And in our Bible reading for today, we have to examples of Jesus breaking the Sabbath law.  In one of them, Jesus and the disciples started picking crops and eating them on the Sabbath.  In the other, Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath.

To the religious leaders of the time, especially the Pharisees, that sort of thing was Just Not Done.  You were not supposed to do any work on the Sabbath.  Period.  That was a law that went back to the time of Moses, when God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses.  God had said you are not to do any work on the Sabbath, not you, not your kids, not your servants, not your animals.  Nobody.  Now they did, out of practicality, have to make some exceptions.  For example, you were allowed to feed and water your animals.  You could leave your house, as long as you did not go very far.  They had all kinds of rules about what did and did not constitute work.  Some of them got kind of technical.  But everyone knew that picking crops was work, and that healing was work, and so you could not do those things on the Sabbath, because God said so.

And here was Jesus, this person who people called the Son of God, this person who had been raised in a Jewish home, this person who surely had to know better, doing those things.  And so were his disciples.  The Pharisees could not believe it.

Jesus acknowledged that they were not following the rules, but he explained it.  And here are his reasons.  First, he cites Biblical precedent.  He cites the story, found in First Samuel, of King David being allowed to take some consecrated bread, which only priests were allowed to eat.  Not only was David, who was not a priest, allowed to eat some of that consecrated bread, but so were his soldiers.  So, Jesus says, there are precedents for breaking some of these religious laws when the situation requires it.

But Jesus’ reasoning is more than just, “We had to break the Sabbath laws because we were hungry.”  That would’ve just been an excuse.  His real reason is this:  “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.”

Think of the implications of that statement.  Again, we’re not just talking about any old rule here.  We’re talking about one of the Ten Commandments.  We’re talking about laws that came to Moses directly from the mouth of God.

What Jesus said about the law about not working on the Sabbath, and by implication what Jesus is saying about all of the other Ten Commandments, is, look, God did not give you these laws to make your lives harder.  God gave them to you to make your lives easier.  God did not intend these laws to make your lives miserable.  God intended them to make your lives better.  God did not give you the Ten Commandments to create burdens for you.  God gave them to you to ease your burdens.

And that’s demonstrated further when Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath.  Jesus says to the Pharisees, look, the way you’re interpreting these rules is making life hard for people.  You’re telling me that I cannot heal this man because it’s the Sabbath.  Does that really make sense to you?  Do you really think God wants this man to continue to suffer, even if it’s just for one more day?  Would God really rather I walked away and let this guy continue to live in pain and misery rather than help him, just because it’s the Sabbath?

We read that, or hear it, and of course it makes perfect sense to us.  We wonder why in the world the Pharisees could not see it, when it seems so obvious.  And yet…

You know, the Pharisees were not trying to be evil or bad or anything.  They were trying to get it right, just as much as anyone else.  They just had fallen into a trap, and it’s a trap that it’s really easy for us to fall into, too.

What God had done in the Ten Commandments, and in a lot of the other Old Testament laws God gave the people of Israel, is lay down some basic principles for living.  And they’re really good principles.  All of us, including me, would be a lot better off if we lived the way God told us to live.  

But what the Pharisees did was turn those basic principles into a bunch of inflexible rules.  Do this.  Don’t do that.  Doing this is right, doing that is wrong.  If you do this, you’ll go to heaven.  If you do that, you’ll go to hell.  The Rules are The Rules.  Period.  No exceptions.

The thing is, as human beings, we like rules.  I mean, we get frustrated with them sometimes, but by and large, we like them.  That’s why we make so many of them.  Rules make things simple.  If we have a rule, we don’t have to take circumstances into account.  If we have a rule, we don’t have to use our judgment all the time.  We just find out what the rule is and follow it.  It saves a lot of time and effort to just have rules.

But what Jesus is telling us is that God does not look at it that way.  And we should not look at it that way, either.  Because if we do, the rules can get in our way.  They can get in the way of doing good.  They can get in the way of following God.  They can get in the way of loving people the way Jesus told us to.

Now don’t get me wrong here.  I’m not saying that there’s no such thing as sin.  There is.  I’m also not saying we should just casually ignore all of God’s principles and do anything we want to do. Jesus did not say any of those things, either.  Jesus did not tell the Pharisees, “throw out all your rules and do anything you please.”  As I said, God’s principles for living are really good principles, and all of us, including me, would be better off if we lived the way God told us to live.

But what Jesus was saying is that a slavish adherence to rules can get in our way, just like it got in the Pharisees’ way.  As I said, the Pharisees were trying to get it right.  They thought that, by slavishly following the rules, they were doing what God wanted them to do.  They could not see that, sometimes, their strict adherence to the rules was keeping them from loving people and helping people.  They could not see that, sometimes, following the rules to the letter could lead them to do the exact opposite of what God wanted them to do.

It’s something for us to think about.  Because all of us have rules, whether we realize it or not.  We have rules for what we do when we get up in the morning.  We have rules for how we spend our days.  We have rules for how we do our jobs.  We have rules for how we live our lives.  We have rules for how we treat people.  We have rules for who we like and who we don’t like.  We have rules for who we care about and who we ignore.  And we have rules for what’s right and what’s wrong, who’s good and who’s bad.  A lot of the time, we may not even have realized that we made these rules, much less that we’re living by them.  But we have, and we are.

The rules we have are not necessarily bad or wrong.  Sometimes they may be exactly the same as the principles God laid out for us.  But we need to take a look at them.  We need to know what rules we have.  And we need to make sure our adherence to those rules is not getting in the way of serving God and loving the people God created.  We need to make sure we have not fallen into the trap the Pharisees did, where following the rules was leading them to do the exact opposite of what God wanted them to do.

So let’s take a look at our rules.  Let’s understand where they came from and why we have them.  And let’s understand that, even if they’re good rules, we still need to make sure they’re not getting in the way of what Jesus said are the two most important rules:  to love God and to love other people.  If they are, we need to change them.  Because ultimately, the rule of love is the standard by which every rule we have needs to be measured.

Born By the Wind

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, January 24, 2021.  The Bible verses used are John 3:1-10.

One of the things about human beings is that we always try to understand things.  We want to know how things work.  We want to know why things are the way they are.  If there’s something we don’t understand, we keep asking questions until we do.

And that’s true of our faith, too.  There are a lot of things we don’t understand about our faith.  And so we ask questions.  We try to figure things out.  We want to know how our Christian faith actually works.  We want to know why things are the way they are.  And tonight, we tackle two of the biggest things about faith we struggle to understand.  The concept of being “born again”, and the concept of the Holy Spirit.

In our Bible reading, a rabbi named Nicodemus comes to Jesus.  He tells Jesus that he can tell, by listening to Jesus, that Jesus comes from God.  

I think that impressed Jesus.  I mean, obviously Jesus knew he had come from God.  But that a rabbi, one of the official Jewish leaders, would acknowledge that was something.  After all, most of the Jewish leaders were opposed to Jesus.  So Jesus responds by giving Nicodemus more information, probably more than he bargained for.  Jesus tells Nicodemus “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born again.”

            That term, “born again”, is kind of a loaded one to use these days.  It probably was not when Jesus used it.  In fact, it looks like Jesus invented the term.  It does not appear anywhere in the Bible before Jesus used it.    

Another thing that makes us think Jesus invented the term is that Nicodemus, a rabbi, did not understand it.  He took it literally, asking how a person can go back into their mother’s womb and be born a second time.

A lot of times we don’t really understand it, either.  There are some people for whom being “born again” is the most important thing about being a Christian.  They believe that being “born again” is something that has to happen in an instant.  They believe there has to be a specific time and place that one is born again, just like there’s a specific time and place that one is born on earth in the first place.  And if you don’t have that, they would say that you have not truly been born again.

            I do believe there are people for whom it does happen that way.  There are people who can tell you a specific time and place where the Holy Spirit came to them and they were born again.  Maybe that’s happened to some of you, and if it has, that’s wonderful.  That has to be an awesome thing to experience.

            But as United Methodists, we don’t believe that it has to happen that way.  We believe the Holy Spirit can come to us gradually, over a period of time.  And it can happen in a variety of ways.  But having said that, we need to not ignore being “born again” and not consider it important at all.  Jesus did say it, and he meant something by it.  There needs to be some way in which our faith in Jesus Christ makes us different.  There needs to be some way in which we do feel the Holy Spirit at work in our lives.  If our faith in Jesus never made any difference to us, if we never felt anything because of it, if we never acted any differently because of it, then our faith would be pretty meaningless.

            Jesus told Nicodemus, and he tells us, that we should not be surprised when he says we must be born again.  Jesus explains it this way:  “The wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear it’s sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

            And Nicodemus basically responds, “Huh?”

            That may be how you and I respond, too.  Does it ever bother you that there seem to be so many times when Jesus does stuff like this?  I mean, seriously, it seems like there are so many times when Jesus used figures of speech and parables and things like that to make his point.  Don’t you wonder sometimes, why does Jesus not just come out and say what he means?

            Well, when you read what people have to say on the subject, you get lots of different explanations.  But think of it this way.  What was one of the titles Jesus was given by the people around him?  In fact, Nicodemus uses it in this passage.  It’s teacher, right?  Jesus was called “Teacher”.

            What does a good teacher do?  Good teachers don’t just give the students all the answers, do they?  Good teachers want to teach their students to think.  Good teachers want to teach their students how to come up with the answers themselves.  They don’t just want their students to know what the answer is.  They want their students to know why the answer is that.  They want their students to be able to think for themselves, so when they come across other problems, they’ll be able to solve them for themselves.

            I think that’s at least part of what Jesus was trying to do.  It’s what we try to do in our confirmation class. The point is not just to memorize a bunch of facts.  The point is to understand our faith.  The point is to know, not just what we believe, but why we believe it.  That way, when our faith is challenged, we’ll be less likely to fall away.  We’ll be able to meet the challenges, because we don’t just have faith, we know why we have faith.

            So let’s look at what Jesus says.  Again, “The wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear it’s sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Here, as in other places in the Bible, the Holy Spirit is compared to the wind.  Wind is something we understand around here, right?  The wind blows almost all the time.  Thinking about the Holy Spirit in terms of wind should give us some good clues about what the Holy Spirit is and how the Holy Spirit works.  

So, what are some attributes of the wind?  Well, we cannot control the wind, right?  It blows wherever and whenever it pleases.  Sometimes, it’s from the north, sometimes it’s from the south.  Sometimes it’s strong, sometimes it’s barely noticeable.  But you and I have no say over any of that.  We might wish we did sometimes, but we don’t.  God is the only one who controls the wind.  

And of course, that’s true of the Holy Spirit, too.  We have no control over what the Holy Spirit does.  God is the only one who controls the Holy Spirit, because of course the Holy Spirit is God.  The Holy Spirit is one of the persons of the trinity:  the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  And no human being can control God.

We cannot control the wind.  We cannot even see the wind.  But we can see what it does.  We can see the effects of the wind on the things around us.  We can see it blow the flag.  We can see it blow the leaves and the trees.  On a windy day, we can feel its effect on us as soon as we walk outside.  The wind can be a gentle breeze, or it can be a strong, powerful force.  When the wind blows, it changes things.

And that’s true of the Holy Spirit, too.  We cannot control the Holy Spirit.  We cannot see the Holy Spirit.  But we can see what it does.  We can see the effects of the Holy Spirit.  We can see its effects on others, when the Holy spirits act in and through them.  And we can feel its effects on us, as soon as the Holy Spirit acts in and through us.  Sometimes the Holy Spirit works gently and sometimes the Holy Spirit works powerfully.  But when the Holy Spirit works, it changes things.  And when the Holy Spirit acts in and through us, it changes us.

I think that’s at least part of what Jesus was trying to get across when he said we need to be born again.  We need to feel the Holy Spirit acting in and through us.  We need to have the Holy Spirit change us.  Sometimes that change happens suddenly and powerfully, like a strong wind.  Sometimes that change happens gradually, like a gentle breeze, nudging us along.  But if the Holy Spirit is acting in and through us, it will change us.  It will make us different from the way we were before the Holy Spirit came.

We are saved by our faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  But if we our faith is real, that faith has to affect us in some way.  If we truly have faith, we will ask the Holy Spirit to come into our hearts.  And the Holy Spirit will change us.  The change may come quickly or it may come slowly, but it will come.  And when it does, we will truly be born again.

 

The Righteous and the Sinners

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, January 24, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Mark 2:13-17.

            Who did Jesus come to save?

            Well, it’s a silly question, right?  Jesus came to save everybody.  That’s one of the basic beliefs we have as Christians.  John Three Sixteen tells us that whoever believes in Jesus shall have salvation and eternal life.  And that thought appears all throughout the New Testament.  Salvation and eternal life are available to everyone who believes in Jesus Christ as the Savior.

            But with that in mind, let’s look at our Bible reading for today.  Jesus is walking along the lake.  There’s a crowd there, and Jesus is talking to them, teaching them as he walks along.  Eventually, they come near a booth.  It’s the booth of a man named Levi, who’s a tax collector.

Now, we’ve talked about this in the past, but it’s important that we remember what a tax collector was back then.  The Roman government’s tax system was completely different from the tax season we’re familiar with in the United States.

            The way it worked is that, if you were hired as a tax collector, the Roman government told you that you were responsible for turning X dollars over the Roman government.  That was all.  The Romans did not care where you got the money.  They did not care how you got the money.  They just cared that you turned the right amount over to them when you were supposed to.  As long as you did that, the Roman government did not care about anything else.

            And the Roman government did not pay you for doing this.  The way you got paid is, whatever you could collect over the amount the Roman government wanted was yours to keep.    So, obviously, tax collectors had a reason to try to collect as much money as they could.  And because the Romans did not care where they got the money, there were literally no legal boundaries to what tax collectors could do.  They would take as much money as they could, and they were not concerned about fairness or morality or anything else.  All this meant that tax collectors were, by and large, quite rich.  But it also meant that tax collectors were, by and large, very much disliked by the people.

            So that’s who Levi was.  That’s the guy Jesus saw at the tax collection booth.  And the way it’s written, Jesus says to words to him.  “Follow me”.  And were told that Levi got up and followed him.

            That’s an amazing thing, don’t you think?  It’s amazing on two levels.  One of them is that Jesus would choose to call this man, Levi, a man who had gotten rich by taking other people’s money, with no regard to fairness or morality, to follow him.  And the other is that Levi, this man who had gotten rich by taking other people’s money, with no regard to fairness or morality, would actually get up and follow Jesus.

            And then, listen to this next sentence.  This is an amazing thing, too.  “While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.”

            In other words, Levi was not a fluke.  Levi was not the one remarkable tax collector who had a change of heart and followed Jesus.  There were a whole bunch of tax collectors who followed.  All these people, who again had gotten rich by taking other people’s money with no regard to fairness or morality, all started following Jesus.  That’s incredible.

            And of course, it was noticed.  Among those who noticed was the teachers of the law, who were also Pharisees.  And they asked about it.  Now, notice, they apparently did not have the courage to go to Jesus directly and ask him about it.  No, they went to the disciples.  And they asked the disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

            And by the way, this was not just an innocent question.  They were not just asking for information.  The Pharisees were already opposed to Jesus.  They already looked at him as an enemy.  They thought this was a put down.  They thought they could give Jesus a bad reputation.  They were going for guilt by association.  “Look at the kind of people Jesus spends time with.  What does that say about him, that he spends time with these lowlifes?  After all, a man is known by the company he keeps, right?  If Jesus hangs out with that kind of person, well, I guess we know what kind of person he is.”

            Jesus hears what they’re saying, of course.  And he answers them, even though they did not ask him directly.  And what does he say?  “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

            That response must have stunned the Pharisees.  I mean, they considered themselves “the righteous”.  And they had no doubt about that, either.  And they were sure that if and when the Messiah came, they’d be the ones he came to.  The righteous Pharisees.  Not these riffraff.  Not these thieves and cheaters.  Not the “tax collectors and sinners”.  The Messiah would come to the best of the best.  And of course, that’s who the Pharisees thought they were.

            So, which do you think you are?  And which do I think I am?  Are we among the righteous?  Or are we among the “tax collectors and sinners”?

            Now, let’s not answer this right away.  Let’s think about it a little.  Because the easy answer, the churchy answer, is to quote Romans Three, Twenty-three and say “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  We say, therefore, that we’re all sinners.

            And that’s true, of course.  We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  But here’s the thing.  Do we really believe that?

            I know we say it.  And I know that, in our heads, we know it’s true.  But do we really believe it in our hearts?  Do we really believe it in a way that affects the way we think and speak and live our lives?

            Each of us has to answer that for himself or herself.  I cannot answer it for you.  I would not presume to try.  It’s not my place to judge you.  But I ask you to really think about it.  In fact, I ask you to pray about it.  Do you consider yourself among the righteous?  Or do you consider yourself one of the “tax collectors and sinners”?

            The reason I ask you to really think about it, and to pray about it, is that I know how easy it is for us human beings to justify ourselves to ourselves.  It’s human nature.  We can excuse almost anything we do if we want to badly enough.  In fact, we can convince ourselves that almost anything we do is good, is right, is exactly what we should be doing, if we want to badly enough.

            And you know another thing we human beings are good at?  We’re really good at not thinking about things we don’t want to think about.  That’s human nature, too.  We’re really good at doing something and just not allowing ourselves to think about the consequences of it.  We just don’t think about how what we’ve done affects other people.  We compartmentalize it and ignore it and pretend that it did not even happen.

            And there’s one other thing we human beings are good at.  We compare ourselves to other people.  We may realize we’re not perfect, but we think, well, I’m not all that bad.  Look at all these other people.  I’m a lot better than they are.  So, I must be pretty good.

            And because of all this, it’s very easy for us to excuse our sins.  It’s very easy for us to pretend that our sins are not really sins.  It’s very easy for us to think that we’re better than someone else, and so we must be okay.  In fact, we’re better than okay.  We’re just fine.  Maybe we’re not perfect, but we really don’t need to change much of anything, either.

            Again, this is not aimed at anyone in particular.  This is simply human nature.  I’m as subject to it as anyone.  The reason I can talk about all these things is because I do all these things.  And I do them repeatedly.  That’s why I can talk about them--I’m intimately acquainted with all these things.

            Because of all this, even though we say we’re all sinners, it is very easy for us to consider ourselves among the righteous.  And so, we come back to Jesus’ statement.  “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

            That does not mean that what we said at the start of this message was wrong.  Jesus did come to save everybody.  But we cannot hear Jesus’ call, we cannot truly accept it, if we consider ourselves righteous.  We can only hear Jesus’ call, and we can only truly accept the salvation that Jesus offers, if we truly realize we are sinners.  Not just realize it in our heads.  Not just say the words.  But know it in our hearts.

            The reason for that is that we can only accept salvation by repenting of our sins and asking for forgiveness.  And we can only do that if we truly know, in our hearts, that we are sinners.  We can only do that if we stop justifying ourselves to ourselves.  We can only do that if we acknowledge and understand how the things we do affect other people.  We can only do that if we stop comparing ourselves to others and start comparing ourselves to Jesus.  Because if we truly compare ourselves to Jesus, we’ll understand what sinners we really are.

            When we understand that, we can come to Jesus humbly.  We can come to Jesus repenting of our sins and asking forgiveness.  And when we come to Jesus that way, we can hear Jesus say to us, as he did to Levi, “Follow me.”  

And we can follow, knowing that our sins are forgiven and that we truly do have salvation and eternal life.

           

 

The Respect God Deserves

This is the message given in the Sunday night service at the Gettysburg United Methodist church Sunday, January 17, 2021.  The Bible verses used are John 2:13-22.

            When Jesus was on earth, he appeared to be fully human.  I mean, he looked like everyone else.  He sounded like everyone else.  As we found out on the cross, he bled like everyone else, too.

            But the thing is, Jesus was not like everyone else.  He was the divine Son of God.  And that meant a few things.  It meant that Jesus had power that no one else had, and we can see examples of that in our reading for today.  But it also meant that Jesus had a way of looking at things that no one else had, and we can see examples of that in our reading for today, too.

            Let’s look at it.  It starts out with a man with leprosy coming to Jesus.  He falls on his knees in front of Jesus and begs Jesus to heal him.  He says, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

            That’s sounds perfectly reasonable and understandable, right?  Leprosy was a very serious disease.  It was also a very contagious disease with no cure.  There was nothing any doctor could do about it.

            But Jesus could.  Jesus had already healed a lot of people.  The stories of Jesus healing power had spread.  And this man knew, or at least believed, that Jesus could do what no one esle could.  Jesus could heal him and allow him to live a normal life again.  And so he begs Jesus to do just that.

            But Jesus’ response is not what you’d have expected.  At least, it’s not what I’d have expected.  This man comes to Jesus humbly, on his knees.  He does not demand.  He is not disrespectful.  He says to Jesus, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”  And we’re told that, when this man said this, “Jesus was indignant.”

            Why would that be?  Why would Jesus be indignant?  That word, by the way, means to show anger or annoyance.  Why would Jesus be angry at this?  Why would he even be annoyed by what it seems like is a perfectly reasonable request?

            Well, there are a couple of possibilities.  One could be that Jesus was upset that this man thought that he would be unwilling to heal him.  He could’ve been thinking, hey, I’m Jesus.  I love people.  Of course I’ll be willing to heal you.  Why would you doubt that?

            That could be what’s going on here, but it’s not what I think.  I think there’s another reason for Jesus being indignant.

            We’ll come back to that.  After Jesus heals the man, the scene shifts.  Jesus is preaching to a packed house.  It’s standing room only.  No more people can get in. 

            These four guys are carrying a paralyzed man.  They want to get him to Jesus because, just like the man with leprosy, they believe Jesus can heal him.  Their hearts must have sunk when they got there and saw there was no way to get in.  But they did not give up.  One of them got the idea to go up on the roof, cut a hold in the roof, and lower their friend down somehow, to get him in front of Jesus.  And they do.

            Can you imagine this scene?  Jesus is talking, preaching.  All of a sudden, people hear some noises coming from the roof.  Some debris starts to come down.  All of a sudden, there’s a hole in the roof.  And the next thing they know, there’s this man, lying on a mat, being slowly lowered down right in front of Jesus.

            Jesus sees all this too, of course.  Jesus waits until the guy is on the ground and the crowd has quieted down.  Then, Jesus responds.

            And again, Jesus response is not what you’d expect.  At least, it’s not what I’d expect.  I doubt it was what the paralyzed man expected, either.  The man does not say anything, or at least nothing that’s recorded.  But Jesus has to know he wants to be healed.  What else could he possibly want?  But Jesus does not heal him, not right away, anyway.  He says, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

            Everyone had to be stunned.  The man had to be stunned because, hey, what do you mean ‘my sins are forgiven’?  I did not come here to get my sins forgiven.  I came here so I could be healed.  I came here so I could walk again.

            The teachers of the law were stunned, too.  They’re thinking, what does he mean, his sins are forgiven.  Only God can forgive sins.  Who does this guy think he is, anyway?  Does he think he’s God?

            Well, of course, Jesus did think he was God, because in fact he was God, God the Son.  And because he was God, he knew what the teachers of the law were thinking.  And he says, “Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’?  But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”  So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”  And of course, the man did.

            This is what I meant when I said Jesus had a way of looking at things that no one else had.  For Jesus, healing this man physically, allowing him to be able to walk, was pretty much an afterthought.  It was not the most important thing.  It was the thing that impressed people, yes.  It was the thing that people remembered.  But for Jesus, healing this man was not the most important thing.  The most important thing for Jesus was for this man to know his sins were forgiven.

            I think that’s why Jesus was indignant with the man who had leprosy.  Jesus was annoyed because this man did not realize what was important.  Jesus was thinking, you’ve got the divine Son of God in front of you, and all you can think about is being healed physically?  Yes, I can do that, and I am willing to do it.  But I could do so much more for you.  I could forgive your sins.  I could give you salvation and eternal life.  And instead, all you can think of is your physical life on earth. 

            As human beings, we tend to think of our physical health as the most important thing in our lives.  The old saying is that as long as you’ve got your health, you’ve got everything.  We do everything we can to preserve our physical health.  And when we don’t have good physical health, we do everything we can to get it back.  And of course, we pray for physical healing all the time.  And I do it, too--I do it pretty much every week in church, and I do it at other times, too. 

            Now, I’m not saying it’s wrong to pray for physical healing.  Jesus did not say it was wrong, either.  Our physical health is important.  God has things for us to do while we’re on earth, and we may not be able to do some of them if we’re not physically healthy.  Now don’t take that the wrong way, either.  People who have health problems are still able to serve God.  But as a general rule, the better our physical health is, the more things we can do, and the more we’ll be able to serve God.  And so we need to do what we can to be as physically healthy as we can.

            But Jesus wants us to know that there are things that are more important than our physical health.  Because no matter how healthy we keep ourselves, we are not going to live forever.  At some point, no matter how much we exercise, no matter how hard we try to eat right, no matter how many precautions we take, our physical health is going to deteriorate.  And at some point, we are going to die.  Each one of us.  That’s just how it is.

            And so, as important as our physical health is, it’s not the most important thing.  And it’s not the most important thing for us to pray for, either.  The most important thing is that we have faith in Jesus as the Savior.  The most important thing is that we repent of our sins.  The most important thing is that we ask for the Lord’s forgiveness for those sins.  Because those are the things that are going to give us salvation and eternal life.  Our lives on earth are going to end at some point, no matter what we do.  But through Christ, we can have another life in heaven, a life that is eternal.

            God can heal us on earth, if God is willing.  But God can do so much more for us.  God can give us forgiveness and salvation and eternal life.

            Let’s keep that in mind when we pray.  Let’s keep in mind who God is.  When we go God we are going to someone who is holy and righteous and perfect.  We are going to someone who is all-knowing, all-seeing, all-wise, all-powerful, and almighty.  We are going to someone who also all-loving, all-caring, all-compassionate, all-forgiving, and all-merciful.  So when we go to God, let’s not limit ourselves to praying about physical health.  And let’s not limit ourselves to praying about other things that affect our earthly lives, either.  Again, it’s all right to pray for them.  But let’s pray for more than that.  Let’s repent of our sins.  Let’s ask God for forgiveness.  Let’s ask God for salvation and eternal life.  And then, let’s ask God to show us how we can spread God’s message, so that other can also have salvation and eternal life.

            God offers us so much more than physical healing.  Let’s accept all that God offers.

 

More Than Healing

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, January 17, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Mark 1:40--2:12.

            When Jesus was on earth, he appeared to be fully human.  I mean, he looked like everyone else.  He sounded like everyone else.  As we found out on the cross, he bled like everyone else, too.

            But the thing is, Jesus was not like everyone else.  He was the divine Son of God.  And that meant a few things.  It meant that Jesus had power that no one else had, and we can see examples of that in our reading for today.  But it also meant that Jesus had a way of looking at things that no one else had, and we can see examples of that in our reading for today, too.

            Let’s look at it.  It starts out with a man with leprosy coming to Jesus.  He falls on his knees in front of Jesus and begs Jesus to heal him.  He says, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

            That’s sounds perfectly reasonable and understandable, right?  Leprosy was a very serious disease.  It was also a very contagious disease with no cure.  There was nothing any doctor could do about it.

            But Jesus could.  Jesus had already healed a lot of people.  The stories of Jesus healing power had spread.  And this man knew, or at least believed, that Jesus could do what no one esle could.  Jesus could heal him and allow him to live a normal life again.  And so he begs Jesus to do just that.

            But Jesus’ response is not what you’d have expected.  At least, it’s not what I’d have expected.  This man comes to Jesus humbly, on his knees.  He does not demand.  He is not disrespectful.  He says to Jesus, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”  And we’re told that, when this man said this, “Jesus was indignant.”

            Why would that be?  Why would Jesus be indignant?  That word, by the way, means to show anger or annoyance.  Why would Jesus be angry at this?  Why would he even be annoyed by what it seems like is a perfectly reasonable request?

            Well, there are a couple of possibilities.  One could be that Jesus was upset that this man thought that he would be unwilling to heal him.  He could’ve been thinking, hey, I’m Jesus.  I love people.  Of course I’ll be willing to heal you.  Why would you doubt that?

            That could be what’s going on here, but it’s not what I think.  I think there’s another reason for Jesus being indignant.

            We’ll come back to that.  After Jesus heals the man, the scene shifts.  Jesus is preaching to a packed house.  It’s standing room only.  No more people can get in.  

            These four guys are carrying a paralyzed man.  They want to get him to Jesus because, just like the man with leprosy, they believe Jesus can heal him.  Their hearts must have sunk when they got there and saw there was no way to get in.  But they did not give up.  One of them got the idea to go up on the roof, cut a hold in the roof, and lower their friend down somehow, to get him in front of Jesus.  And they do.

            Can you imagine this scene?  Jesus is talking, preaching.  All of a sudden, people hear some noises coming from the roof.  Some debris starts to come down.  All of a sudden, there’s a hole in the roof.  And the next thing they know, there’s this man, lying on a mat, being slowly lowered down right in front of Jesus.

            Jesus sees all this too, of course.  Jesus waits until the guy is on the ground and the crowd has quieted down.  Then, Jesus responds.

            And again, Jesus response is not what you’d expect.  At least, it’s not what I’d expect.  I doubt it was what the paralyzed man expected, either.  The man does not say anything, or at least nothing that’s recorded.  But Jesus has to know he wants to be healed.  What else could he possibly want?  But Jesus does not heal him, not right away, anyway.  He says, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

            Everyone had to be stunned.  The man had to be stunned because, hey, what do you mean ‘my sins are forgiven’?  I did not come here to get my sins forgiven.  I came here so I could be healed.  I came here so I could walk again.

            The teachers of the law were stunned, too.  They’re thinking, what does he mean, his sins are forgiven.  Only God can forgive sins.  Who does this guy think he is, anyway?  Does he think he’s God?

            Well, of course, Jesus did think he was God, because in fact he was God, God the Son.  And because he was God, he knew what the teachers of the law were thinking.  And he says, “Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’?  But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”  So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”  And of course, the man did.

            This is what I meant when I said Jesus had a way of looking at things that no one else had.  For Jesus, healing this man physically, allowing him to be able to walk, was pretty much an afterthought.  It was not the most important thing.  It was the thing that impressed people, yes.  It was the thing that people remembered.  But for Jesus, healing this man was not the most important thing.  The most important thing for Jesus was for this man to know his sins were forgiven.

            I think that’s why Jesus was indignant with the man who had leprosy.  Jesus was annoyed because this man did not realize what was important.  Jesus was thinking, you’ve got the divine Son of God in front of you, and all you can think about is being healed physically?  Yes, I can do that, and I am willing to do it.  But I could do so much more for you.  I could forgive your sins.  I could give you salvation and eternal life.  And instead, all you can think of is your physical life on earth.  

            As human beings, we tend to think of our physical health as the most important thing in our lives.  The old saying is that as long as you’ve got your health, you’ve got everything.  We do everything we can to preserve our physical health.  And when we don’t have good physical health, we do everything we can to get it back.  And of course, we pray for physical healing all the time.  And I do it, too--I do it pretty much every week in church, and I do it at other times, too.  

Now, I’m not saying it’s wrong to pray for physical healing.  Jesus did not say it was wrong, either.  Our physical health is important.  God has things for us to do while we’re on earth, and we may not be able to do some of them if we’re not physically healthy.  Now don’t take that the wrong way, either.  People who have health problems are still able to serve God.  But as a general rule, the better our physical health is, the more things we can do, and the more we’ll be able to serve God.  And so we need to do what we can to be as physically healthy as we can.

But Jesus wants us to know that there are things that are more important than our physical health.  Because no matter how healthy we keep ourselves, we are not going to live forever.  At some point, no matter how much we exercise, no matter how hard we try to eat right, no matter how many precautions we take, our physical health is going to deteriorate.  And at some point, we are going to die.  Each one of us.  That’s just how it is.

            And so, as important as our physical health is, it’s not the most important thing.  And it’s not the most important thing for us to pray for, either.  The most important thing is that we have faith in Jesus as the Savior.  The most important thing is that we repent of our sins.  The most important thing is that we ask for the Lord’s forgiveness for those sins.  Because those are the things that are going to give us salvation and eternal life.  Our lives on earth are going to end at some point, no matter what we do.  But through Christ, we can have another life in heaven, a life that is eternal.

            God can heal us on earth, if God is willing.  But God can do so much more for us.  God can give us forgiveness and salvation and eternal life.

            Let’s keep that in mind when we pray.  Let’s keep in mind who God is.  When we go God we are going to someone who is holy and righteous and perfect.  We are going to someone who is all-knowing, all-seeing, all-wise, all-powerful, and almighty.  We are going to someone who also all-loving, all-caring, all-compassionate, all-forgiving, and all-merciful.  So when we go to God, let’s not limit ourselves to praying about physical health.  And let’s not limit ourselves to praying about other things that affect our earthly lives, either.  Again, it’s all right to pray for them.  But let’s pray for more than that.  Let’s repent of our sins.  Let’s ask God for forgiveness.  Let’s ask God for salvation and eternal life.  And then, let’s ask God to show us how we can spread God’s message, so that other can also have salvation and eternal life.

            God offers us so much more than physical healing.  Let’s accept all that God offers.